Indeed.

Its not, it's freezing cold. I journeyed into hell today on my first organized bike ride of the season. I think it was in the high 40s when we started, and it pretty much stayed that way, with winds in the 10-20s. I did pretty well, overall, but really felt the last half of the ride. This from a person who was doing metric centries (66 mi) and higher rides without too much problems. Which leads me to conclude, i'm in significantly worse shape than I was last season, despite working out every week (usually 2x or 3x). Anyway it was really tough but it just made finishing all that more enjoyable.

Kinda like grad school. I'm close, I can feel it in my bones. (Close as in 3-6 months away) I am at least close to finishing what I said I would do, and what my advisor has said is the absolute minimum. Realistically, I'll need to spend more time doing more experiments to test the functionality of the protein I am working on; so far no luck yet on that part.

Update: Weather yesterday was 42 when I started, 46 when I finished (then jumping to 52 an hour later, go figure). Friday they were saying a high of 68, right! Can't trust weather-bunnies.

Turns out in Virginia they actually increased the amount of accidents, or redistributed them, instead of decreasing accidents/injuries as proponents had hoped. It's of interest here in Houston; the city govt will install them at key locations. story here.

A brand new, exhaustive study of all seven Virginia red light camera programs shows an overall increase in injury accidents has occurred where the devices are installed. The study was performed by The Virginia Transportation Research Council at the request of the state transportation secretary. The report also notes a fatal flaw in the Virginia's camera law -- motorists can ignore any ticket received in the mail. Only tickets that are personally served matter (the same thing happened in Arizona).

Despite a distinct sympathy in favor of camera enforcement, the researchers found a "definite" increase in rear-end accidents and only a "possible" decrease in angle accidents. Most importantly, the net effect was that more injuries happened after cameras are installed. Camera proponents explain this away by asserting angle accidents are more serious, but this claim has not been scientifically studied according to this report. The rear end collisions caused by the cameras still produce injuries -- the original promise of camera proponents was that they would reduce accidents and injuries, not rearrange them.

This study agrees with long-term findings in Australia and North Carolina.

not

This is another attempt of the UN to claim all the credit for things they had little or no part in. Even some left-wingers believe in the godness that is UN and denies the awesome power of our own military forces; to them I say shame on you.

Who knew?

Felon update:

Found today in her hidey-hole:
12 3.5" floppy disks
13 assorted writing impliments
6 CD holders (no CD)
3 plastic frogs
2 balls
1 squeaky shark
1 bread knife

1 innocent-looking weasel

From Instapundit

MILITARY BLOGGER NEIL PRAKASH has been awarded the Silver Star. Here is his blog.

JibJab does a short animatated movie about W's second term. Pretty funny, check it out here.

Makes sense to me (link) (But what about the women?)

Basically the idea is that you subscribe to this mailing list and each week they will mail you crockpot recipes, something I think i need more of, since J & I rarely have time to cook dinner. Tonight is an exception, I am making a baked squash/apple dish (from this recipe), with mashed potatoes and grilled porkchops, marinated with apple jam and A1 spicy (we are using our new Forman grill for the first time; finally a grill!). For a salad we'll have a spring mix with a really nice dressing we've discovered via friends - its called Brianna's blush wine vinagerette. They sell it in Texas at least, I don't know about other places. It has a big strawberry (for some reason) on the label, but doesn't contain strawberries. Anyway it all looks pretty good so far; I'm curious to see how the squash will turn out. I'll post a picture if it looks good.

Story here Because of Saddam's reign of terror and the decade long embargo, Iraqi academics are in bad shape. NOw they are getting better, with stories like this. I have also heard somewhat about Iraqis getting science texts and journals from the US. It's a small but important step to revamp science and health there.

Installment #19 from Chekoff here

Lots of good stuff here. It's not all doom & gloom. The elections will take place, and slowly the country will rise from the ashes.

A group of folks (the Richard C. Rescorla Memorial Foundation) are trying to raise money to have a bronze statue of Rick Rescorla cast and placed at the National Infantry Museum being built at at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Who is this guy? He's a hero, quite simply. He saved 2700 people that horrible day that will live in infamy. His supporters are trying to get the Presidental Medal of Freedom awarded to him. This is an incredible story of his life, his valor in Vietnam, and his heroic actions on that day. (story here)

Update:
The story of LZ Xray, the Vietnam battle where Rick Rescoria and countless others heroicly repulsed a numerically superior enemy, is here

Embarass, Minn, where it's currently -54 F. Key quote:

Mackai said Embarrass had been prepared for bitter cold as early as last Thursday. "It only got down to 28 below, and that's nothing. That's no big deal," she said.

Andrew Sullivan has a small discussion on torture. Seems like it's a big topic nowadays, with people of every strip condoning the practices of torture that occured at Abu Garcia, and at Gitmo. Some detainees have died in custudy, that's an indication that they are not just 'playing heavy metal' to the prisoners. And yet...I don't condone it. I am hoping that the torture is reserved to the biggest threats, those who have killed, plotted to kill, or something similiar. These are desperate men, and many terrorists are so fanatical in their beliefs that it makes them almost immune to coercive treatment. So how else will we (US or allied forces) gain information we desperately need? And consider what the insurgents/terrorists have done to Americans; if they are captured they are almost always beheaded on television, to make a point. Further, abuses under coalition rule pale in comparison to that of Saddam's rule. It always will. YOu can't equate being humiliated (by being forces to masturbate or eat pork) for a small time, to being tortured day after day, for years on end, for no reason other than being a political threat. This is the thing that the Left often ignores, is how bad it was under Saddam. It was truely awful, every survivor account describes near hellish conditions in Saddam's Iraq.
Proof? Read on.
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Exerpt from Amenisty International Report
Joy of Joy, a video of Saddam's torture is here
Another AI report is here

Now please no one tell me that the abuse suffered at the hands of the US compares with that of Saddam. It doesn't; we'd have to randomly take tens of thousands of people per year, torture and execute them for no reason, then it would be equal.

I love evolutionary theory, it's testable and very dynamic, and evolution has lead to the presence of the world as we know it - birds, trees, people, etc. I got my BS degree it it at University of Arizona seemingly a lifetime ago.

ANYWAY. Now scientists have found evidence for a key concept in evolution (story here), but before I talk about that, I must discuss with the laypeople readers about the central dogma of biology, else you won't understand this new breakthrough. THe central dogma has it that that DNA replicates itself, and also gives rise to proteins through an 'intermediate' called RNA. So the chain goes like this: DNA -> RNA -> protein. DNA is inheritable, and DNA mutations lead to heritable changes, which cause evolution on a scale of thousands of generations. DNA mutations lead to protein mutations, which cause the proteins to change function, or not function at all.

So, the new data talks about the idea that once a mutation has occured to change a gene function, it's hard to go back to it's original function. Why? Two reasons.

First, a subsequent mutation in the original gene or something that the gene product interacts with is required to keep the existing function. Think of it as a lock and key mechanism - If you change the lock, the key no longer fits. You must use a new key to fit the lock, or change the lock to fit the old key.

Second - and this is what the researchers focused on, once the mutation occurs, the protein pathway can be free to mutate to a new function, becaues the old function is no longer being used. Think of it this way; if a car's engine suddenly changes into something different, like a computer, then the car will stop working. Since the car no longer works, the other parts are no longer required, and can aquire new functions; the battery can change into a keyboard , for example.

That's what happened in the case of the morning glory. Here's a quote from the story.

Said Rausher, "These findings provide a concrete example of what biologists have believed -- that such ecologically important characters as flower color are the result of a developmental process that involves many genes. And if you knock out any one of those genes, the other genes in the pathway are essentially free to decay or to take on new functions."

Sheeps brain ends up in salad dressing bin. (HT: Dave Barry)
Story here:

Key quote:

School and police officials are investigating a case of food tampering in which someone took a piece of sheep's brain from an anatomy class and put it into the salad dressing at the Vestal High School cafeteria.

Freshman Sean Carr and some friends ate off campus Thursday.

"It's a good thing I don't eat there," Carr said of the cafeteria.

Report on Scrappleface

Key quote:

The newly-evolved stickers read as follows: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a fact, not a theory, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with childlike trust, accepted obediently and defended vigorously against the attacks of ignorant monotheists."

"There must have been some sort of favorable random mutation in the soy-based ink," said one unnamed science teacher in explaining the almost-miraculous appearance of the new stickers. "We believe the new version is more fit to survive the natural judicial selection process, if not the legislative process."

Okay, but seriously, why are the religious right upset at the theory of evolution being taught in school? They probably recall from 3rd grade science that scientific theories are just ideas. In modern science, a theory is actually a very powerful explaination for a natural process that can not be absolutely proven. For example, gravity, does anyone dispute gravity? No, of course not, yet it's still a theory, because it's an intangable force.

Proof is often hard to find. In my field (I study the biochemistry and cell biology of a protein called p95), it's very hard to say with certainty that what we have data for is really occuring in cells, for the basic reason that experiments require preturbation of natural conditions. For example, do two proteins interact? A zillion ways to test it, but how do you prove it? Usually if you do 3 different types of experiments and they all give the same answer, it's considered conclusive evidence. But at the same time, you still can not absolutely rule out the possibility that the two proteins don't interact. Anyway that's my science lesson for today.

Oh in other science news I am enrolling in a cool class. Here is the blurb about it.

oin us for an exciting and informative course: Roles of Physicians and Scientists in the Business World. This video course is the first of its kind being offered by Harvard, MIT and M. D. Anderson.

Created by Jack Gill, PhD and co-instructed by John Liddicoat, MD, MBA and Olivier Wenker, MD, MBA, the course explores the function of physicians and scientists in biotech, medical device and life-science companies.

Learn about the venture capital process, how high-tech companies are developed, technology sources, the tech transfer process, IPOs, mergers, and more.

Case studies will be presented and discussed as several distinguished guest speakers, many of whom are founders and CEOs, offer valuable insights from their experience in industry. In later classes, a high-tech career-planning guide will be discussed. Participants will receive a certificate of completion issued by the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Dang, i thought i've seen it all. This person is a filapino woman conservative writer, and this is what her 'readers' have to say. It's a pretty crappy way to treat someone; if you think her writing sucks, tell her, but why make a big deal about her skin color/gender?

Update:

This is her article discussing the problems now faced by minority conservatives in the wake of the Dept of Ed scandal.

here
(HT: Instapundit)

Nice photographs, mostly scenary. Nothing 'adventurerous' in it. Unlike this photo from a friend of a friend)

Apple has annouced a new $500 mac. Details here

Inside its petite 2-inch tall, 6.5-inch square anodized aluminum enclosure, Mac mini houses a 1.25 or 1.42GHz G4 processor, 40 or 80GB hard drive, a slot-loading CD-R/DVD-ROM optical drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip with 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM — all whisper-quiet.

I like the very small form factor, but that means it's also completely unupgradable. Think laptops. This thing will be obsolete in a year. Forget running games, there are (essentially) no mac games anyway. Even if you could, its woefully underpowered for playing. Forget video editing too, it would be pretty slow for that. But for basic word processing, and browsing, it's fine. Of course, machines made 2-3 years ago were fine for that purpose too. But everyone needs an excuse to stay in business.

Scrappleface has a fun rejoiner:
Here

Apple Offers $29 Nano-Mac, Hardware Not Included
by Scott Ott

(2005-01-12) — In another uncharacteristic effort to woo the masses, Apple CEO Steve Jobs today announced that starting in February his company would ship a "starter version" of the iconic Macintosh computer which will sell for only $29 — hardware not included.

It ignited another PC/Mac flamewar, to which I contributed this piece of wisdom:

Ah, the old Mac vs PC flamewar, it's as old as time itself. I've used both for about 15 years; each has it's share of problems. The problems tend to be the USER, not the hardware platform. The Mac OS X is pretty good, very stable, etc. The PC Windows XP is also very good, very stable, lots of features, etc. Most of those 'PCs always crash' issues died about 5 years ago with the release of Win2000. For a while it was the PC with it's superior operating systems that was ahead of the Mac. Now finally Macs have caught up.

Basically they are the same, the major differience is the users that use it. If I were to choose differences, Mac hardware tends to be more reliable, because it's made by one company and is well tested. It may have a stupid design, but it's reliable. PC's tend to be more technical and easier to scale to diverse applications. It can run machines, it can network well, etc. I think this results from Windows controlling 95% of the market.

Update:

Tim Berglund drools over the new Mac. I have reservations:

I guess the fundamental question that Jobs needs to answer is why would a PC user convert to a mac? Now price is not an issue. Software is and always will be. Bottom line, would this mac contribute more or less to a happy computing experience than a PC? I can't find a compelling logical reason it would be better.

Lots of recent interest in Enstein and his theories; this has been designed (by the UN) the Year of Physics (or really - the Year of Einstein). 100 years ago (1905) Einstein published four seminal papers on physics. Story here

These papers were:

Einstein's first paper concerned the nature of light. Earlier experiments had shown that light behaved as a wave when it travels through air. But Einstein believed that light behaved differently when it interacted with matter, more like a stream of particles he called photons. His equations would be verified by experimenters a decade later. By showing that light could act as both a particle and wave, and its subsequent verification, Einstein won the Nobel Prize. Finding that light could be studied as quantifiable packets of energy also led scientists to develop quantum physics.

The second paper - Brownian Motion

His second paper confirmed the existence of atoms and molecules. In the paper, he explained the so-called "Brownian motion" of tiny dust particles in water. This jerky motion, he explained, was caused by random collisions between the particles and molecules. Until this work, in the minds of many scientists, atoms and molecules were simply placeholders used by chemists to fill out periodic tables.
This research also allowed Einstein to give the first estimates of the size of atoms and molecules.

The third paper - Special Relativity - can be summed up as so: When one approaches the speed of light, one's perception of time and space change; time slows down, and objects appear larger (longer).

The fourth paper covered the relationship of energy and mass, and was a breakthrough for nuclear physics. Subsequent work lead to the creation of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

Einstein's final work in 1905, and perhaps most well-known, involves his simple equation E=mc2. This equation relates energy and mass, (c is the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second), telling scientists that even small amounts of matter are equivalent to huge amounts of energy. This simple equation led scientists to nuclear weapons and the power of splitting atoms, which converts a small amount of matter into energy.

If you can burn instant Ramen, you have no business being in the kitchen. Sigh.

This story really sucks. Apparently the police dogs shipped to Iraq do not have any food, are starving, and some have died. You would think that they would be better taken care of; in a pinch they can consume human food (however when our dogs did that, they got really sick, just not used to it maybe). Anyway here's the money quote.

"The dogs are starving and urgently need dry dog food," Capt. Gabriella Cook, commander of the Las Vegas-based 313th Military Police Detachment, said in a Dec. 28 e-mail reported Wednesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"Some of them have already died," Cook wrote. "Half of them are sick. We have no way of buying actual dog food here."

Cook's unit arrived last month in the Iraq capital. She said 12 German shepherds and one black Labrador retriever trained for bomb-detection and attack at the Iraqi Police Academy in Baghdad have been eating table scraps and garbage.

This has caused my opinion of the army logistics people to plummet. The deploying unit's job is to ensure that food is sent, and someone screwed up, and the dogs are dying for it.

Hat tip: cheese & crackers They are calling for donations, too, so if you feel like donating, follow the link. I wonder what people in Iraq who have dogs (surely some exist) feed them?

The news is not good
Basically a bunch of hatcheries in Indonesia for endangered sea turtles were almost completely wiped out, and now 5 species have a even better probability of near-term extinction. The problem is that out of 1000 hatchlings released, only 1 survives to adulthood. Pretty slim odds. On the other hand, their natural predators must have also been impacted by the tsunami; I imagine alot of fish were killed during the huge wave. Oh, FOX has very interesting footage of the tsunami as it rolled in. It's pretty dramatic. Sigh, i can't find it now though. It was up last night.

On the other hand, sea turtles in the Cayman islands are doing very well, despite hurricane Ivan. J & I visited in early November; they had thousands. (picture here) Granted, most of them were being raised to be consumed, but some are released (so they claim). They had to start turtle farms when the Cayman natives depleted the native stock of sea turtles.

All the rage these days (apparently) - hat tip glenn reynolds

If you want to eat great stew on a regular basis, the secret is Crock Pots.

Sainted Wife and I make stew about every 10 days. We both work and have a kid in day care. You throw the fixin's in the Crock Pot at night, set it on the "hi switch to lo" setting, and let it go. You get home the next night at six, and it's ready to go. It's easy and the stew always turns out great.

Here is our patented recipe for Booze Fighter Stew - prep time is 10 minutes, plus a day or so to allow it to cook:

1 bottle Guinness, or a couple cups leftover red wine. (a 12 oz bottle of barley wine works really well too) 2 lbs beef, lamb or pork - preferably a cut with good marbling, but without huge veins of fat. (hint: you need to leave a bit of fat in for flavor). Cube the meat, brown it really quickly in a dab of olive or vegetable oil (just sear the outside) and then throw it in the pot. carrots celery, 1 lb mushrooms (critical ingredient like the booze or meat) 3 - 4 appropriately flavored stock cubes spices - salt and fresh ground pepper - but also toss in a healthy whack of rosemary, cilantro, mint (with lamb), bay leaves, celery salt, and tarragon - all are excellent parsnips (optional) 2-3 medium onions, quartered couple cloves garlic 3-4 medium quartered potatoes (optional for low carb types - you can substitute a chopped up swede/turnip) plus a pinch of anything else your heart desires. Add enough water to just about cover the ingredients. Turn the pot on "hi switch to lo" and let it cook for a day.

If the stew is a little thin when you get home the next day, throw in a cup or two of sour cream 20 minutes before you eat it to thicken it up and give it some tang. A dash of hot sauce when you serve it is also nice, and it goes great with a fresh stick of French bread or some dark rye. Best enjoyed with friends over a hearty red "peasant" style wine (Languedoc, Portuguese or Chilean), or a strong ale.

(story) It's been, what 10 days since the disaster? You'd think he'd be more concerned. Oh, right, he has other things to do (covering up his role in the UNSCOM crisis).

Satirical story from a milblog (military blog - someone serving in Iraq who is doing a blog) about a fake interview w/ a 'cub' reporter. THe satire is that all the reporters are interested in are the 'insurgent successes', which unfortunately there have been alot of recently. (story here)

The stories that don't get published in MSM are here (the failed attacks)

This is J capturing Felon, she has a spoon in her mouth and is trying to steal it. Felon jumps onto the coffee table or dining room table and drags off any silverware she can find.

Or lack thereof. Eventually I'd like to start doing more stuff on biology, to establish a 'microniche'. Not many people really focus on biology that I've seen. I"m sure someone does around here, but I don't know of them.

Anyway here is a cute story about a baby hippo getting attached to a tortoise after being rescued and placed in a game preserve. Kinda funny but not that surprising; seemingly baby animals can imprint well to other species.

This is a somewhat funny story about a guy who won the lottery but didn't come forward until after his divorce was finalized. He ended up giving his ex $5 mil, a pretty penny.

The new book is: I Am Charlotte Simmons
The review is here
Tom Wolfe is a famous author who is known for his 'epic' modern storytelling, in that he tends to write about big-business, big-city drama, etc etc. This time he writes about college life. The review brings to my mind rememberances of my college years, which went by far too quickly and uneventfully. In college/high school we were (supposed to be) innocent dreamers, with big philosophical discussions, and grand visions of a fair, free world. Mine was more of a 'what do I need to do to get out of here' type mentality, I didn't enjoy classes, I didn't enjoy campus life, I barely participated. Anyway, if the book's review strikes these sorts of cords, then maybe the book is worth reading.

Remember the Houston women who drowned her 5 kids? Her case has been overturned and she will need a new trial. (story here) You would think it's a slam-dunk case, after all, she made the 911 call and said she drowned her children. But the legal system is on a reality different from our reality.

I'm not sure what to make of it. On one hand, she probably won't kill anyone again, if she can get psyciatric help. Also, what good would punishing an insane person be? For me its somewhat like punishing my ferrets; they don't know the difference between right and wrong, and they can't understand what punishment means, so why bother?

On the other hand, the public cries out for justice I think, and examples must be set. She should be confined for a long period, 10 years maybe, but not for life; that is if she can get better (if that's even possible). A

This is our wedding, J & I, on Oct 23, 2004

Update:

Yeah, i desperately need photoshop.

here

Trackbacks are a way to get recognized as a blogger. Basically it's when you mention someone else's blog entry, and its a way of letting them know you used it. People can also use it to follow the discussion, and it's a way to garner influence in the blogosphere. In my old blog (livejournal), I couldn't do trackbacks. Here at least people can look at the blog when I link to other stories on other blogs.

The talk in the blogosphere is about the tsunami crisis and who is
helping, or isn't helping.  As usual, the UN is nowhere to be
seen, but the Americans, Dutch, and Aussies are helping; the vast
majority of the work is being done by the US military, which American
taxpayers support.  In this light, amounts of contributions in
monetary dollars is not a useful indicator of how much everyone is
pitching in, but in fact its 'boots on the ground'.  Therefore the
US is saving the world once again.  I hope we are remembered by
the Indonesians and Thais.  (story here)